This invention relates generally to a manually actuated liquid sprayer having a telescopically mounted spray mitigating element capable of being manually shifted between out of service and in service positions.
Known pump sprayers have attachments of various types for mitigating or modulating the spray discharge especially for use a foam dispenser. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,350,298 discloses a foam dispenser in which a nozzle cap is mounted for movement to a foam position, the cap having a plurality of arms lying in the path of the discharge spray plume and consituting an obstacle wall or spattering device with which the spray liquid from the orifice collides. The nozzle cap is shifted axially relative to the discharge orifice from an extended foaming position to a retracted position in which the discharge orifice is plugged closed. Otherwise, the nozzle cap may be hingedly mounted in place so as to be pivoted between foaming and non-foaming positions. Although the hinged nozzle cap permits the dispenser to be used as a normal sprayer as well a foamer, the hinged cap can be unwieldy and confusing for the operator in having to snap it into and out of place.
Another foamer is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,159 as having a mesh screen or screens fixed in the path of discharge to facilitate liquid particle breakup on dispensing.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,463,905, a pump sprayer has a mesh screen hinged for movement between foaming and non-foaming positions.
Another manually actuated sprayer is disclosed in my prior application, U.S. Ser. No. 890,277, filed July 29, 1986, and entitled "Sprayer Having Induced Air Assist". A ported baffle plate presents a gap with the wall containing the discharge orifice so as to define an unobstructed air plenum, the open port being sized to encircle the spray plume at the location of the baffle so that the spray plume substantially fills the port as air in the gap is driven through the port by impingement of the spray particles issuing from the orifice which thereby entrains air laterally from the plenum into the spray plume for creating a turbulent effect which increases collisions between the spray particles, prevents any backflow of air through the port and adds air mass and mixing with the spray particles resulting in a finer and more consistent spray particle breakup.
Canadian Pat. No. 1,045,595 discloses an adjustable foam generating sprayer having a nozzle unit forming a pressure reducing passageway defined by a tapered passageway portion and an adjoining elongated throat portion. The divergent stream issuing from the discharge orifice strikes progressively increasing areas of the outwardly tapered and throat portions of the pressure-reducing passageway as the position of the nozzle unit is adjusted relative to the orifice for adjusting the quality of the foam of the stream flowing from the nozzle unit. If little or no foaming action is desired, the nozzle unit is adjusted so that the widest portion of the diverging stream strikes the interior of the elongated throat portion.
However, none of the aforementioned foamers provides for mitigation or modulation of the divergenet spray cone only in an extended position of a ported element which, when retracted in a direction parallel to the axis of the discharge orifice, produces no effect on the spray plume as it freely passes through the open port.